Abstract
The most common milk handling containers used by dairy actors along the informal milk value chain in developing countries are plastics jerry cans which are difficult to effectively be cleaned thus contributing immensely to milk contamination and consequently post-harvest losses. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of some common cleaning regimes used by the dairy actors in Kenya against reduction of surface microbial load on jerry cans. Milk handling plastic jerry can containers (n = 16) were obtained from dairy actors and then subjected to four different commonly used cleaning regimes alongside a control experiment of aluminium cans (n = 4). These containers were aseptically swabbed in three replicates before and after the application of a cleaning regime and the swabs (n = 120) analyzed for Total Viable Count (TVC), Total Coliform Count (TCC) and Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB). The quantitative mean difference of the bacterial load reduction between before and after the application of a cleaning regime was used as the measure of its effectiveness. The study found out that irrespective of the cleaning, the type of container was significant (P < 0.001) in the reduction of microbial contaminants, whereby the aluminium cans had the highest microbial load reduction of 86, 85 and 96 % for TVC, TCC and LAB respectively as compared to 40, 28 and 42 % for TVC, TCC and LAB respectively for plastic jerry cans. The use of a commercial scourer in the cleaning was found to significantly reduce (P < 0.05) only TVC and TCC. The results from this study explains the unsuitability of plastic jerry cans in handling of milk and a risk factor for milk post-harvest losses in Kenya through microbial contamination.
Highlights
The most common milk handling containers used by dairy actors along the informal milk value chain in developing countries are plastics jerry cans which are difficult to effectively be cleaned contributing immensely to milk contamination and post-harvest losses
This study focused on the evaluating the effectiveness of the cleaning regimes commonly used by dairy actors in Kenya in sanitation of plastic jerry cans against reduction of surface microbial contaminants
Sampling and sample preparation A total of sixteen plastic jerry can milk handling containers were randomly obtained from dairy actors: dairy farmers, milk transporters and milk vendors and four aluminium cans from a dairy plant (Guildford Dairy) and transported to the laboratory under aseptic conditions for microbial load analysis at 4 °C
Summary
The most common milk handling containers used by dairy actors along the informal milk value chain in developing countries are plastics jerry cans which are difficult to effectively be cleaned contributing immensely to milk contamination and post-harvest losses. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of some common cleaning regimes used by the dairy actors in Kenya against reduction of surface microbial load on jerry cans. Milk handling plastic jerry can containers (n = 16) were obtained from dairy actors and subjected to four different commonly used cleaning regimes alongside a control experiment of aluminium cans (n = 4). These containers were aseptically swabbed in three replicates before and after the application of a cleaning regime and the swabs (n = 120) analyzed for Total Viable Count (TVC), Total Coliform Count (TCC) and Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB). The presence of crevices and scratches on equipment surfaces causes accumulation of organic debris that
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